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About Gypsy
Height: 5"7 | Eye Color: Blue | Hair Color: Light Brown
Australian cabaret artist Gypsy Wood is a natural born performer with a penchant for the comic, clever, shocking and divine, thanks to her upbringing in an eclectic showbiz family. She struck out on her own in 2000 and after working in cabaret, burlesque and contemporary dance all over the world, she now stars in OPM at the Cosmopolitan on the world famous Las Vegas Strip where she shares her highly original performance 5 nights a week.
Gypsy’s mother, Jeanette Luke performed as a child in Vaudeville. Then in the 60's worked as a soubrette to showgirls such as Sandra Nelson while dancing in the most famous clubs in Sydney such as the Paradise, the Checkers Club and the Motor Club. Jeanette named her first daughter after that great icon of the tease – Gypsy Rose Lee
A graduate of the Victorian College of Arts, Gypsy started her dance career in Australia, however was propelled into the performance underworld and found a life more chaotically bohemian and interesting. From jumping out of giant cakes at parties for New York’s high society to splashing around in fake blood in the dirty gay fetish clubs of Sydney, hosting London game show nights to performing in edgy offbeat comedy shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Gypsy runs the spectrum from vaudeville, variety, burlesque to comedy and contemporary performance art.
Gypsy starred in the sell out Strut n’ Fret production of 'Feasting on Flesh' at the Sydney Opera House in 2006, the Spiegeltent at the Brisbane festival and the Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008. And later in 'Ali McGregor's Late-Nite Variety-Nite Night' at the Melbourne Town Hall for Melbourne’s International Comedy Festival and Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009.
In the lead up to the 2007 Australian Federal Election Gypsy created and performed an act where she emerged as John Howard in an American flag bikini, stripping to Britney Spears hit 'Gimme More'. Later that year Gypsy Wood was called upon to perform her patriotic duty as an Australian Burlesque artist– when asked to strip as a playboy bunny for Australia’s former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, on The Chaser’s War on Everything in front of 2.3 million television viewers, the next day headlines read, ‘Rudd runs like a rabbit!” The Australian, 2007
And in 2009 Gypsy exploded from a Labor Ballot box as John Howard at Bob Hawke’s 80th birthday party at the Sydney Opera House. Stripping in front of then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, former prime minister Paul Keating and former Labor leader Kim Beazley creating a whirlwind of scandal headlines and news, Hawke Burlesque Antics a Hit, Says Dancer –ABC News 2009
Since 2010 has co produced the cult festival show Comic Strip An evening of Stand-Up Comedy and Strip Tease in the style of a New York strip club circa 1964. Comic Strip played in the infamous 'Garden of Unearthly Delights' and sold out its entire run in the Deluxe Tent and later in 2011 for Assembly Gardens in the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Comic Strip is now running again in 2012.
"Even I fancy her!” shouts the ever more excitable girl on my table after Gypsy's penultimate costume change. And when she returns for the fourth and final game dressed only in heels, elbow-length gloves and the scantiest, spangliest thong bikini, a hundred jaws hit the table as one. Doctors fear some spectators may never recover the full use of their scorched eyeballs."- Dominic Wells, The Times, 2008
WORK EXPERIENCE
Theater
2018 - Present | Speigelworld's Opium | Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas, NV | Starring Cast Member
2017 | Peter and Bambi Heaven – When Love Becomes Magic | Edinburgh Festival Fringe, FRINGEWORLD (Perth), Adelaide Fringe Festival | Creative Director/Star
2016-17 | Jonny Woo's Unroyal Variety Show | Hackney Empire, London | Star
2016 | Peter and Bambi Heaven – The Magic Inside | Edinburgh Festival Fringe, FRINGEWORLD (Perth), Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Creative Director/Star
2015 | Peter and Bambi Heaven – Magical Variety Hour | FRINGEWORLD (Perth), Lorne Festival (Victoria) | Creative Director/Star
2014 | Comic Strip | FRINGEWORLD (Perth), Adelaide Fringe Festival
| Creative Director/Star
2014 | The Gypsy Wood Show | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Creative Director/Star
2013 | Comic Strip | FRINGEWORLD (Perth), Adelaide Fringe Festival,
Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Hull Freedom Festival (UK) | Creative Director/Star
2012-13 | Australian Burlesque Festival | National Australian Tour | Headliner
2012 | Comic Strip | Adelaide Fringe Festival | Creative Director/Star
2010-15 | Ali McGregor's Late Nite Variety Nite | Melbourne | Ensemble Cast Performer
2008-2009 | Club Cascaduer | Adelaide Festival Fringe | Creative Director/Star
2008 | Feasting On Flesh | Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Brisbane International Festival | Star
Film
1990 | Musical Films | Return Home | Supporting Actor
Television
2017 | Edinburgh Festival Late Show, STV2 | Guest Performer
2016 | France's Got Talent | Guest Performer
2006, 2007 | The Chasers War On Everything | Sketch Performer
2007 | The Farmer Wants A Wife | Guest Star
1984 | Bodyline | Supporting Actor
Training
2000 | Victorian College of the Arts | Bachelor of Dance